Roxane

It takes a lot for me to laugh at a movie but I had tears streaming down my face. Just go watch it with an open mind. Not going to spoil it here.

A nice and elegant surprise from Mélanie Auffret, a young director with a great career ahead of her, undoubtedly. It's a poetic and surrealistic tale in the Côtes d'Armor, north of Brittany, with Raymond as a main protagonist. He is an organic farmer who regularly and secretly reads Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand, 1897) to his hens. In front of an imminent threat of bankruptcy, Raymond will have to work twice as hard. In this respect, he will develop his passion for theater so that the public gives an overwhelming support to his talent and thus gives credibility to its agricultural activity! Although sometimes patchy, this movie is built on a strong and original script, and the actors are talented, especially Guillaume de Tonquédec. As a synthesis, 6/7 of 10.

This is a nice movie overall.

It's certainly not a cinematic masterpiece, but it has a decent story and characters, it's generally well acted, and has a good mix of humour, sadness and drama. The chickens are good in it too :).

The basic storyline involves Raymond, a chicken farmer in France who is going to lose his farm due to the "co-op" cancelling contracts with small local farmers like him. He loves his chickens and reads Cyrano de Bergerac, and others, to them each day. Hence, he has a chicken called Roxane with whom he goes about making short videos to stream online each day in an attempt to raise awareness and save the farm.

A bit quirky (in a good way). Enjoyable, and I'd say I could probably watch it again sometime in the future. If you're looking for an light hearted easy to watch film, this is for you.

This movie is what you would call dainty and gentle. A farmer is about to lose it all and comes up with a crazy plan, with the help of his English neighbor who happens to also be an actress. In between the funny and sometimes slightly ridiculous parts of the movie, the harsh reality of struggling farmers is shown like suicide, asking for loans and ever dropping prices of products. The movie is not fast paced and those who expect an educated take on a french farmers life should look elsewhere. This is just a cute and quirky movie about a desperate farmer, his chicken, his family and his crazy English theater teacher/neighbor.

I've seen this movie twice now in a few days. It's certainly enjoyable, and Guillaume de Tonquédec is most certainly winning as the not particularly verbal hero who finds his voice in the character who spoke for those who could not speak for themselves : Cyrano de Bergerac (at least as Rostand portrayed him in his masterful 1897 verse drama).

Unfortunately, however, the clever idea behind this script is not well developed.

A much better movie about the plight of France's small farmers is *Au nom de la terre*, which came out just a few months after this movie. A better recent movie about individuals finding their voices in classic French literature is *Alceste à bicyclette*, in which two actors find a way to give voice to their feelings by reading Molière's classic *Le Misanthrope*.

Don't miss this movie, certainly. It's enjoyable to watch. But don't expect a lot of it.